Ask HN: Why are successful open source projects usually developed by small teams

29 points

7 years ago

Many people fear using new open source project if it is developed by a small team or even a single person. This is one of the top concerns from our users [1].

But the history of Open Source Software proves that many successful projects are initially created by a single person:

  - Linux was created by Linus Torvalds.
  - Nginx was created by Igor Sysoev.
  - Memcached was created by Brad Fitzpatrick.
  - Redis was created by Salvatore Sanfilippo.
  - Python was created by Guido van Rossum.

The list may be continued (mention missing projects in comments).

It would be great to have answers on the following questions:

1) Is there positive correlation between the initial size of the team and the success of open source project?

2) Why people prefer using new open source projects developed by big teams instead of projects created by small teams?

3) What about architecture quality and code quality? Do they differ between projects created by big teams and projects developed by small teams?

4) What about bus factor? Is this valid concern for OSS developed by small teams? Are there prominent examples?

Let's discuss these questions.

[1] https://github.com/VictoriaMetrics/VictoriaMetrics/

13 comments